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October 10, 2007


Nericas and Africa's Green Revolution

Nericas is shorthand for New Rices for Africa, the seed varieties developed by science to be heartier and higher-yielding than traditional rice plants. Celia Dugger's reporting in the New York Times that farmers in places like Guinea having trouble getting the seeds or building up the infrastructure it takes to make full use of them:

Here in West Africa, where rice is a staple crop, the African Development Bank is financing a $34 million program in seven countries to spur wider use of the new rice seeds. But the obstacles are daunting.

Farmers typically lack credit to buy seed and fertilizer. And the agricultural economy itself suffers from a lack of investment. Foreign aid for agriculture has plunged over the past two decades. And African governments -- some, like Guinea, endowed with natural resources and cursed with corruption -- have too often spent less of that wealth than they might have on rural development.

Decent roads to move crops to market are scarce. So are storage facilities to preserve harvests and crop insurance to protect farmers from drought, flood or bumper yields that perversely cause prices to collapse. All can wipe out the income farmers need to provide reliable demand to seed companies, making sale and distribution of the improved seeds a high-risk venture.

...

"If we don't develop the infrastructure, there's no way we'll attain the Green Revolution," said Monty Jones, the plant breeder whose groundbreaking research led to creation of the new rices. "How do you bring the Nericas to farmers? How do you get farmers to know the seeds exist?"

There's a passing mention in the article that Nericas seeds aren't patented. And yeah, Guinea is rich with natural resources and could build the infrastructure that high-investment agriculture needs. But it's probably worth a mention in the piece that the so-called "green revolution" hasn't always worked out so well. Take, for example, the cycle of debt and farmer suicides currently plaguing India.


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Nancy Scola I'm a Brooklyn-based writer obsessed with technology, networks, social organizing, and the politics of food. This is my online home where I talk about those things and whatever else strikes my fancy. Learn More

Of Note: Our Fractured Food Safety System [Science Progress], Facebook Activism [AlterNet], Tag Magazine




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